Making Ethanol

The ethanol industry in North Dakota is looking up after a very difficult couple of years when production out-paced demand That s according to the general manager of Blue Flint Ethanol near Underwood Jim Olson joined Jeff Zueger at the plant recently to learn how the operation turns farmers crops into fuel for all of us There are 30 000 flex fuel vehicles on North Dakota roads - vehicles that can use E-85 a blend of 85 ethanol and 15 gasoline And every other car and truck can use the 10 ethanol blend sold at virtually every gas station in the state And much of that ethanol comes from this plant near Underwood Jeff Zueger Blue Flint Ethanol GM We need about 60 semis worth of corn every day to keep the process running The Blue Flint Ethanol plant uses some 20 million bushels of corn every year to make 60 million gallons of ethanol Jeff Zueger Blue Flint Ethanol GM The large concrete silos you see here are our corn storage But let s go inside the buildings to see what happens to turn kernels of corn into alcohol Jeff Zueger Blue Flint Ethanol GM So the main control room is right in this area The control room keeps track of the raw materials steam chemicals biological agents everything needed in the process And not far from the control room is another key area - the lab where people like Victor Loose are testing the product daily Victor Loose Lab Technician Every morning we do a tank certification so the people buying the ethanol know the quality And then the operators will do that every two hours they ll take a sample to make sure the system is running the way it s supposed to be runninig Just outside the lab is where the process begins Jeff Zueger Blue Flint Ethanol GM This part of the process is called cook That s where the glocose from the corn is fermented It turns into a mixture of 14 alcohol they call beer That s what s happening inside this window Then the mixture is separated so the alcohol can be made pure - or distilled - in these towers The goal here is to produce 190 proof ethanol - that s 95 pure It becomes 100 alcohol through a final process that soaks up the last bit of water in the liquid But once it hits 100 ethanol it can t be shipped out - it has to be denatured or mixed with a small amount of gasoline to deter any thirsty thieves out there Jeff Zueger Blue Flint Ethanol GM Before it s transported so that it can t be consumed so that it s safe only for a motor vehicle fuel Finally the denatured ethanol is ready to be shipped out - or in the case of this plant some is mixed with gas to make E-85 to be sold to distributors right from here Jeff Zueger Blue Flint Ethanol GM We put out about five rail cars of ethanol a day and about five cars of distillers grain in a day The dry distillers grain is the solid material left over from the process - it s sold as a livestock feed The whole process is something Zuger thinks is a positive for agriculture Jeff Zueger Blue Flint Ethanol GM This is a good use of corn Had this not been there the market may not have been what it was and it s really provided a nice foundation for the agriculture industry Near Underwood Jim Olson KX News Tomorrow we ll talk about a new way that gas stations in the state could offer ethanol to drivers